


Operation Sneaky Snake

by Dorian (orphan_account)



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 12:17:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17622227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Dorian





	Operation Sneaky Snake

Fareeha “Pharah” Amari stared mindlessly into the distance through the windows of the dropship. Dust and rocks under the scorching sun as far as the captain’s eyes could see. An orange mountain ridge was towering above her on the right side and was located on top of the border between two countries. The plane had started its descent, and she felt a soft thump as they touched down on a plateau. The turbojet engines powered down, and the droning sound of a thousand bees next to her disappeared. Most of her war buddies hated the loud noise the engines made, but she had taken the closest seat to the source because it drowned out her inner voice. Now, all of her thoughts came rushing back in like a flood. Across this border innocent people were dying, and at any moment, all hell could break loose — they were executing a surprise attack to come to their aid. The weight of the world was on her shoulders, and Fareeha couldn’t stand up as fast as usual. With a click, the seat belt came loose when the captain finally found the strength to push the release button. She started pacing around in the airplane like a wild animal in captivity.

As the rest of her team prepared to leave the plane, she was fiddling with her rocket launcher playing some silent air guitar. In her head she went over parts of the mission debrief for the last time. The commander, Jack “76” Morrison, stood in front of a powerpoint presentation holding a laser pointer in his right hand. “Two weeks ago this bordertown was overrun by VGO and turned into a defensive stronghold with lots of equipment,” he said while drawing jittery circles over a satellite photo of the area. From the picture it was clear that this was merely some buildings on both sides of a dirt road, twisting back and forth down the mountain. Fareeha had heard some bad news about VGO already. They were a powerful factions of rebels who now ruled with an iron fist in the parts they controlled. Like so many others in history, they had promised to rid the country of drug lords, corrupt officials and bring freedom to the people. Instead, they were plundering the countries’ natural resources for their own gain and killing anyone who dared to resist. VGO had slowly but surely taken a lot of ground and were now in control of major supply lines via air and water, choking the remaining cities into submission like a cruel mistress.

In the rest of the briefing the commander had explained that the town now contained multiple anti aircraft and anti ship missile batteries. Those had made it impossible for the resisting forces to use any meaningful airspace or the important river flowing in the valley at the base of the mountain. Some villagers, who managed to escape during the VGO attack, had revealed that the mountains contained a secret tunnel slightly above the town. Drug smugglers used it before the war to cross the border undetected. Looking at the photo, Fareeha realised why attacking the town from over the mountain top would be suicide — the descent towards the town would offer no cover for several hundred meters. Instead, this hidden treasure allowed the strike team to launch a surprise attack from nearby. The town’s structures and surrounding terrain created a choke they would have to push through to in order to disable the VGO equipment and take back control. With the element of surprise and the tunnel giving them the high ground advantage, the odds were at least somewhat reasonable. Local spies had also made them aware that enemy troops were gathering to launch an assault on one of the resisting cities nearby. A majority of the enemy soldiers should have left the stronghold to participate in this attack.

The Overwatch organization had faced a choice: help to defend the city, that would most likely fall without their support, or use this as an opportunity to launch a counter attack on the weakened stronghold instead. Abandoning the weak and innocent in their time of need was a sacrifice Fareeha hated to make, but one the commander deemed necessary to deal a devastating blow to VGO — one that would make them lose control over the whole region. Near the end of the briefing the commander gave each of them a folder. “Memorize this. Get some rest. We leave at zero seven hundred hours tomorrow.” Morrison looked around the room, “Any questions?” Reinhardt immediately broke the silence that followed, “Yeah, I got one — will we be back in time for beer?”

The team consisted of six highly trained specialists. Reinhardt “Rein” Wilhelm, a German warrior, and the Russian ex-weightlifting champion Aleksandra “Zarya” Zaryanova would form the frontline. Together with 76, Fareeha would be responsible for most of the raw firepower. Angela “Mercy” Ziegler and Tekhartha “Zen” Zenyatta filled the supporting roles, offering healing and utility. If it wasn’t for these guardian angels Fareeha would not be standing here today. Together they had threaded the needle more often than she was willing to admit, barely escaping with their lives on multiple occasions. But out of all those great heroes, she was most thrilled to go into this battle with Reinhardt today. As a kid, she had a poster above her bed of the blonde giant with his rocket-powered hammer. The stories how he crushed any and all who dared to come close during the omnic war were more than just a story to her; it was her inspiration to fight for those in need. She used to daydream how she would destroy the bad guys together with her mighty German crusader. Next to him and his shield she would be unstoppable and rid the world of evil. What used to be a distant dream had become reality. Today she would fight alongside her childhood hero. She could still not wrap her head around how she had gained the respect of her role model who treated her as an equal.

During the attack, she would form a duo with her favorite blonde medic. Pharmercy is the name often used to refer to them when they fly into battle together. This name - whether it was used with affection or fear - gave them a reputation she had to live up to today. The particular layout of the battlegrounds made an airborne fighter with a rocket launcher very suited to the task. Fareeha, supported by her partner, would rain down rockets on the enemy from an elevated position. Working in tandem with her buddies on the ground, they would clear the town of VGO soldiers. Rapid switching between healing and boosting from Angela's staff jolted her thoughts back to her surroundings. Apparently her restless behaviour had not gone unnoticed, and she saw her medic was staring at her with an amused expression clearly visible in her smile. “It’s gonna be fine, Fareeha. You’re always amazing.” Mercy’s comforting voice made her worries melt away like snow under the sun. The final equipment check pre battle indicated that everything is working as it should. "System check initiated. Green across the board. I'm ready for action," she told her team. After giving one of the basketballs that were lying around a last playful punch, she lined up in formation with the rest of her team.

Everyone followed the German crusader towards the entry of the tunnel. Even though they didn’t expect any enemies, they were careful to make as little sound as possible. They were currently radio silent, and only after they had completed their mission would they turn on their transmitters. As soon as HQ would receive a positive update, their allies could send in airplanes to disrupt the VGO assault on the nearby city. Zenyatta was ordered to scout the last few meters alone using his stealth and sensors to find out if it was indeed feasible to launch an attack. The omnic came back with an update on the situation just a few minutes later. The town was mostly abandoned with only about a hundred enemies remaining and half of those were assumed to be unarmed support crew. “We’ve faced worse odds, and we still have the element of surprise” said the commander as he started walking towards the light.

Standing at the exit of the tunnel, she saw mostly rocks, stones and dust between her position and the town. Only some plants that could grow in a hot and dry climate were thinly spread out across the sandy patches. A truck leaving the town left a trail of dust behind and disappeared out of sight. Some beautiful green vegetation was left standing around the river flowing nearby, but most of it was ravaged by the war that had torn this region apart. Slightly downwards on her right, she spotted the first target. A cave in the mountain contained two anti aircraft missile launchers. Hidden with camouflage nets they were not easy to spot, but with the help of the intelligence of local scouts she knew what to search for. There were only a handful of guards around the equipment, and they were taken out swiftly and silently. Afraid of radio frequency jamming equipment rendering any remote trigger useless, they place explosives that detonated with a simple timer instead. While Rein and the omnic stood guard, the four others placed explosives on a five minute countdown. When all the explosives were set, they they move as quietly as possible towards the town as a unit. They had almost reached the buildings when the timers ran out. A loud explosion broke the silence like thunder on a clear day. Dust and small stones came raining down around them. The enemy was now surely aware of their presence.

With the assault now fully in motion, the time had come to open fire. Fareeha shot a rocket at the ground directly underneath her, and the blast gave her an initial bit of momentum upwards. She turned around for a second to fire a concussive blast at the ground beneath her. Even after countless times, the sudden jolt of acceleration that followed this action, would never cease to feel amazing. Fareeha felt the wind rushing past her face as she picked up a lot of speed. Even in this warm climate the wind had a cooling effect at these velocities. The airborne fighters were now flying above the town. She fired rockets at defensive sentry gun positions so the ground forces could safely enter the main road. The blonde was hovering in the air slightly behind her. In an instant Fareeha’s life force was drained. Her lower body flung violently backwards as if someone had hit her with a baseball bat. A hot burning pain started to spread out from the right upper leg.


End file.
